Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: sustainability

Climate change policy has entered a new era. The growing row between the United States and the European Union over the impacts of the new American green subsidy regime makes that all too clear. Yet, in many ways, this story is ultimately about China.

For the last 20 years, developed countries have used three main types of policies to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy mandates have required electricity generators to invest in solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal power. Emissions trading schemes for energy and industrial businesses put a price on carbon. And energy efficiency standards have been progressively improved on a whole range of products, from vehicles and white goods to homes.

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Say you have a cutting-edge gadget that can crack any safe in the world—but you haven’t got a clue how it works. What do you do? You could take a much older safe-cracking tool—a trusty crowbar, perhaps. You could use that lever to pry open your gadget, peek at its innards, and try to reverse-engineer it. As it happens, that’s what scientists have just done with mathematics.

Researchers have examined a deep neural network—one type of artificial intelligence, a type that’s notoriously enigmatic on the inside—with a well-worn type of mathematical analysis that physicists and engineers have used for decades. The researchers published their results in the journal PNAS Nexus on January 23. Their results hint their AI is doing many of the same calculations that humans have long done themselves.

Continue reading “Engineers finally peeked inside a deep neural network” | >

In January 2023, the Caltech Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) is poised to launch into orbit a prototype, dubbed the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD), which will test several key components of an ambitious plan to harvest solar power in space and beam the energy back to Earth.

Continue reading “Caltech to Launch Space Solar Power Technology Demo into Orbit in January” | >

Over the past year or so, CleanTechnica has published several stories about Sakuu, the innovative battery company located in Silicon Valley (where else?) that is working to bring 3D-printed solid-state batteries to market.

Last June, Robert Bagheri, founder and CEO of Sakuu, said in a press release, “As far as our solid state battery development, we are preparing to unveil a new category of rapid printed batteries manufactured at scale using our additive manufacturing platform. The sustainability and supply chain implications of this pioneering development will be transformational.” Based on the company’s Kavian platform, the rapid 3D-printed batteries will enable customizable, mass scale, and cost effective manufacturing of solid-state batteries while solving fundamental challenges confronting battery manufacturers today, the company said at that time.

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University of Cambridge, working with colleagues from Austria, found a new way to make a possible replacement for rare-earth magnets: tetrataenite, a ‘cosmic magnet’ that takes millions of years to develop naturally in meteorites.

Previous attempts to make tetrataenite in the laboratory have relied on impractical, extreme methods. But the addition of a common element — phosphorus — could mean that it’s possible to make tetrataenite artificially and at scale, without any specialised treatment or expensive techniques.

Continue reading “New approach to ‘cosmic magnet’ manufacturing could reduce reliance on rare earths in low-carbon technologies” | >

On a cold winter day, the warmth of the sun is welcome. Yet as humanity emits more and more greenhouse gases, the Earth’s atmosphere traps more and more of the sun’s energy and steadily increases the Earth’s temperature. One strategy for reversing this trend is to intercept a fraction of sunlight before it reaches our planet. For decades, scientists have considered using screens, objects or dust particles to block just enough of the sun’s radiation—between 1 or 2%—to mitigate the effects of global warming.

Continue reading “Space dust as Earth’s sun shield” | >

ABB is today launching an innovative all-in-one Electric Vehicle (EV) charger, which provides the fastest charging experience on the market.

ABB’s new Terra 360 is a modular charger which can simultaneously charge up to four vehicles with dynamic power distribution. This means that drivers will not have to wait if somebody else is already charging ahead of them. They simply pull up to another plug. The new charger has a maximum output of 360 kW and is capable of fully charging any electric car in 15 minutes or less, meeting the needs of a variety of EV users, whether they need a fast charge or to top their battery up while grocery shopping.

Continue reading “ABB launches the world’s fastest electric car charger” | >